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THE LAST RACE OF COUNT CRASH

• Author: Philip Payne

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ORIGINAL LAYOUT

Hopelessly out of control, the flame-red racing car triphammered a knot of spectators, flipped back onto the racecourse and was still. The race flowed on, but that convulsive moment in last Sunday's Italian Grand Prix was decisive, irrevocable. In it were realized the loftiest hopes and deepest fears of the American who is the world's new road racing champion. Phil Hill of Santa Monica, Calif. won the race and thus the championship. But Count Wolfgang von Trips, his teammate and rival for racing's greatest prize, lay dead, as did 14 spectators, and the sport of motor racing, already scarred by the dead of Le Mans in 1955, the Mille Miglia in 1957 and many others, had suffered another visceral blow.

Hill wept even as he received his laurels, for he had not known until then that Von Trips was dead. Into his tears went all the anguish of a moody, self-critical, sensitive man—a Hamlet in goggles and gloves—who has never been able to take racing serenely or coolly leave it alone. With Von Trips dead, it would now be said that Hill was champion by default. The tense Californian had it to do all over again.

For both Von Trips and Hill, the road to Monza had been a gantlet of tortures. The German, frail from birth, nagged by aristocratic parents to come home to his Rhineland castle and tend his estates, had stubbornly raced first motorcycles and then cars. He cracked up often—for which he was dubbed Count Crash.

But the hawk-nosed, blue-eyed count persevered. Maturity polished the ragged edges of his driving technique. By last year he was a full-fledged driver for Enzo Ferrari, the temperamental patriarch of Italian racing and builder of its only current Grand Prix cars.

Hill's tortures were self-inflicted. From the day he seriously went racing, in 1950, he was beset by doubt, yet driven by inner goads to excel. Rising through the ragged ranks of amateurs and polished overseas pros to star caliber, perfecting a marvelously sure touch in the great sports car races while waiting for a Grand Prix ride, Hill finally captured the racing world's esteem but not, somehow, his own.

His nervous introspection made him unpredictable off the course. One never knew whether he might speak with warmth and eloquence on racing or spit out a flat, abrupt phrase cutting an interviewer short. When in 1958 Enzo Ferrari promoted him from sports cars to Grand Prix racers his tenseness only increased. Sports car events, for the most part endurance races, are won by smoothness and simple stamina; the brutal man-to-man combat of the shorter Grand Prix makes harsher, more explosive demands. Lacking the killer instinct of a Tazio Nuvolari or the supreme technical mastery of a Juan Fangio—to name two Grand Prix immortals who preceded him—Hill as a Grand Prix man was often less than sure he was in the right business.

But 1961 found Hill the No. 1 Ferrari driver, with Von Trips a stride behind. (At least, so expert observers agreed; Ferrari himself did not name a team leader.) And 1961 would obviously be Ferrari's year. The choleric Italian had developed a racing engine vastly superior to those of his rival British and German builders. The only question remaining was which of his aces was to seize the championship.

Except for two race-winning raids by the British virtuoso Stirling Moss (SI, Aug. 28) in underpowered English Lotuses, Ferrari's pre-eminence was complete. Through the summer Von Trips and Hill dueled bitterly, ferociously, on the tracks of Monaco, Holland, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Germany. When the Grand Prix circus arrived at Monza last week, Von Trips led in the driver championship race by four precious points, 33 to 29. By winning now, Von Trips could clinch the title, even though the U.S. Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, N.Y. remained to close the season on October 8.

At Monza, Hill's taut nerves stretched to breaking; he qualified only fourth-fastest. "Everything's gone wrong with my car," he barked. "We may have to tear down the whole engine. I can't talk. I couldn't even be civil."

In fact, Hill had Ferrari mechanics work through the night, installing a new engine.

Safely placed on the pole, Von Trips was cool and relaxed. "We may be teammates," he said, "but one has to fight. I love fighting."

The fighting commenced on a hot, hazy day on Monza's peculiar road-plus-oval track course, etched in a tree-shaded park. Police struggled to control a huge crowd of festive Italians who, confident of a Ferrari victory, jostled to be near the fences as 32 low-slung, open-wheeled cars screeched into motion. Disaster struck early. Only one 6.2-mile lap of the 267-mile race had been run when Von Trips seemed to slow a bit while entering a curve. Lotus Driver Jimmy Clark bumped him from behind. Von Trips's Ferrari, speeding at upward of 130 mph, danced up against a guardrail, plunged across the track, into the helpless spectators and back to the track again.

Thus, in horror and despair, did Phil Hill become the first American ever to win the world championship.

"It all seems so unreal," said Hill. "It all seems so unreal."

COOL AND PURPOSEFUL IN HIS FERRARI DURING MONZA PRACTICE, COUNT VON TRIPS WELCOMED ANOTHER DUEL WITH HILL

THE CRUMPLED BODY OF VON TRIPS IS BORNE AWAY, HIS CAR DRAGGED OFF TRACK

clock This article was published more than  12 years ago

‘The Limit: Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit,’ by Michael Cannell

With death and glamour sitting side by side in Grand Prix racing during the 1950s and ’60s, it’s not surprising that the sport attracted young men from noble European families. They saw risking their lives behind the wheel as a way to become modern-day knights. Count Wolfgang von Trips, the last of a 700-year-old noble line and so reckless that he was dubbed Count Crash, was one of these knights of the racetrack. He drove to win glory and help restore Germany’s battered pride.

Noting that the essence of any great sports story is the "pairing of opposites," Michael Cannell , a former editor at the New York Times, has chosen to pair the fearless count with a cautious Californian named Phil Hill. Uncharacteristically for an elite driver, Hill fretted publicly about safety, leading the English driver Mike Hawthorn to nickname him "Auntie." Despite their different personalities, von Trips and Hill were friends before the 1961 Grand Prix drove them apart.

Although that competition supplies a plot line, " The Limit " is really about men who loved speed and were willing to die for it. The book depicts Grand Prix racing in an era before sponsorship deals, when drivers attained great speed without seat belts or fireproof clothing and knew "odds grimmer than those their older brothers had faced in the war."

Nobody personified this mystique better than Alfonso de Portago , the 17th Marquis de Portago, whom Hill regarded as "a Spanish James Dean without some of the brooding." When Portago died driving Italy's Mille Miglia in 1957 — at age 28 — in a horrific crash that sliced his body in two and claimed the lives of nine spectators, pictures of the actress Linda Christian giving Portago a final kiss at his last checkpoint made front pages around the world.Portago had spent most of his last day on Earth philosophizing with von Trips about racing. The two noblemen agreed that it was "beautiful and necessary."

Racing was necessary, too, for Hill, who grew up the son of two abusive alcoholics in Santa Monica. Hill found refuge in tinkering with engines, starting with his aunt’s Pierce-Arrow. Unlike von Trips, who knew nothing about engines, Hill had the heart of a mechanic, having spent a year working in English auto plants.

Von Trips’s aristocratic family lost almost everything in the war, and as a young man he frequently had to borrow money from his friends. Hill tended to be solitary, while von Trips was a ladies’ man who had a lengthy affair with Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy, the daughter of Italy’s last king.Hill visited the moated von Trips castle and bonded with the count’s mother over a shared interest in classical music. Both von Trips and Hill were on Enzo Ferrari’s team, and Ferrari notoriously goaded his drivers into bitter — and sometimes fatal — rivalries.

Throughout the summer of 1961, von Trips and Hill had “traded checkered flags” on the Grand Prix circuit. Both desperately wanted to be first at Monza, the Italian race that closed out the European phase of the Grand Prix. Hill won, but his victory was eclipsed by von Trips’s death after he lost control of his car that day. Feeling guilty to be alive while his friend and rival had perished in the competition, Hill was a pallbearer at von Trips’s “Gothic death pageant” of a funeral.

Hill’s concern for safety paid off: He retired to California, where he found the contentment that had long eluded him in a late-in-life marriage. He died in 2008. Although there were times when I wished for a bit more panache in the writing, this book is so thoroughly absorbing that I’d recommend it even to readers who don’t have a driver’s license.

Hays is the author of " The Fortune Hunters : Dazzling Women and the Men They Married."

Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit

By Michael Cannell

Twelve. 318 pp. $25.99

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

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When motor racing really was a matter of life and death

T he red car and the green one were doing about 150mph as they started to brake for the long right-hand corner. Jostling for position behind three other cars, they touched and veered off the road. While the green car spun harmlessly to a halt, the red machine somersaulted up the sloping bank on the outside of the track, striking the wire fencing before falling back in a heap of disintegration. Its driver, Wolfgang von Trips, had been thrown out and would die before reaching hospital. Fifteen spectators who had been pressing against the fence were also dead or dying. Cars swerved around the wreckage as marshals rushed to clear the debris.

The collision of Von Trips's Ferrari and Jim Clark's Lotus occurred 50 years ago this Saturday, a day when men and cars will again assemble for the same race at the same location, the Italian Grand Prix at the Monza autodrome, albeit in rather different conditions. Von Trips's death, and that of the spectators, came during the years when mortal injury was an accepted part of motor sport. Up to a point, although no driver has been killed in a Formula One race since 1994, it still is.

Single deaths – such as that of young Henry Surtees at Brands Hatch a couple of years ago – happen on the track from time to time. It is impossible to imagine, however, that a race held in 2011 could continue after the deaths of 15 spectators. Or nine, which is how many were killed (five of them children) when Alfonso de Portago's Ferrari left the road near the end of the 1957 Mille Miglia. Or 82, the death toll when Pierre Levegh's Mercedes was launched into a densely packed crowd during the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1955, a race that ended on schedule with the winner – who had been involved in the accident – drinking champagne.

And yet, reporting the Monza race, the correspondent of Motor Sport magazine would not mention the tragedy until two thirds of the way through his long article, after the usual meticulous description of the latest modifications to the competing cars. "For those in the grandstands and pits and around the rest of the circuit the race went on," he remarked, "details of the accident being unknown and unannounced by the organisers."

A victory for Von Trips would have given him the world championship. Instead the race and the title were taken by his team-mate, Phil Hill, a sensitive man who, unlike Mike Hawthorn at Le Mans six years earlier, found it hard to celebrate his good fortune.

The story of the converging destinies of Von Trips and Hill is told in The Limit, by the American author Michael Cannell, to be published in November. A writer with no previous interest in motor sport, Cannell does a decent job, although relying heavily on previously published sources. Pre-eminent among those is the work of Robert Daley, then the New York Times correspondent and a friend of both drivers. In his classic book, The Cruel Sport, Daley wrote of the events of 10 September 1961: "Neither Hill nor anyone else ever expressed regret for the 15 customers who died with Trips, beyond noting that there would now be much agitation to abolish motor racing again. This reaction is normal. The personal tragedy of Trips overshadowed the destruction of other, unknown people."

Tony Brooks finished fourth on that day at Monza. "We weren't aware during the race of the seriousness of the accident," he told me on Monday. "As drivers, we were still conditioned by the attitude from world war two that danger was part of life. Nobody was making us race, and we accepted the risk. When the race was over, what really upset us was that innocent bystanders had been killed."

Nevertheless nobody had thought of stopping the race. Were people more callous back then? I do not believe so, judging by the way human beings still do terrible things to other human beings. But today's decision would be the right one for today's world. And so, however shocking to contemporary sensibilities, was the one made half a century ago.

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Wolfgang von Trips

Wolfgang von Trips. Copyright LAT Photographic 2010. Used with permission.

Killed in the Italian Grand Prix whilst on the verge of the World Championship title. German nobleman, a gentleman of the old school and incredibly popular, he was particulary good in sportscars. von Trips started racing in 1951 in motorcycles before moving into sportscar racing. He initially raced for Mercedes before moving to Porsche in 1956, where he took class wins at Sebring, the Nurburgring 1000kms and the Le Mans 24 Hours. This earnt him a drive with Ferrari which he kept until his death. As well as his two Grand Prix wins, von Trips also won the 1961 Targa Florio in a season that, barring the tragic end, was an incredibly successful season for the German.

Biography last updated 6 Mar 2016

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Original 1961 Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips Death Notice and Obituary Card set

• Description

Original 1961 Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips Death Notice and Obituary Card set. This is an extremely scarce set! This is an ORIGINAL Death Notice and funeral cards set of Wolfgang Reichsgraf Berghe von Trips. Only a few selected friends of the family received this card in 1961 after Wolfgang's untimely death during the 1961 Grand Prix of Italy at Monza when his Ferrari 156 Sharknose flipped over. This set consists of the following: Photo card; front shows von Trips in helmet; the rear reads simply Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips. Measures approximately 3.5 x 5.5 inches. In Memoriam card. The front shows von Trips in a suit and lists his birth and death days. The rear shows an in memoriam written by von Trips's parents. Measures approximately 6.1 x 5 inches. Thank you card by von Trips's parents. Measures approximately 7 x 4 inches with ragged-edge finish. Only 1 set available. We offer FREE shipping to ANY destination in the world on this item but, given its value, we advise you to take the optional insurance on it.

Wolfgang graf berghe von trips racing memorabilia, ferrari racing memorabilia.

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Wolfgang von Trips

Wolfgang Von Trips spent most of his F1 career with Ferrari and could have been Germany’s first world champion. His grand prix career had got off to a rocky start, failing to make the grid on his debut at Monza in 1956 after crashing in practice, then breaking his leg at the same venue two years later.

However he showed an impressive touch on quick tracks, taking podium finishes at Monza in 1957 and Reims in 1958. The question was whether he could temper that speed with discipline.

For 1959 he joined Porsche and caused chaos in the Formula Two field at Monaco when he spun and eliminated his rivals in the same class. It was a dangerous time for a driver who made mistakes – a fact emphasised when Von Trips’ was withdrawn from the 1959 German Grand Prix after team mate Jean Behra was killed in a support race.

Von trips return to Ferrari’s world championship team the following year but continued to race in F2 for Porsche as well. Ferrari were out-classed by their rear-engined rivals on the world stage but Von Trips was regularly around at the chequered flag to pick up the lower points places.

For 1961 Ferrari aced the new 1.5-litre engine rules and Von Trips was thrust into a world championship showdown with team mate Phil Hill . Two wins and two second places strengthened his cause and he arrived at the penultimate round at Monza in strong shape.

He took pole position for the race but slipped back into the pack at the start. Jostling for position with Jim Clark on lap two the pair clashed wheels, firing Von Trips’ car up a bank into the crowd. He perished along with 14 spectators on a black day for the sport .

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Racing royalty: wolfgang 'taffy' von trips.

One of the more memorable names from Formula 1’s early days, Wolfgang Alexander Alber Eduard Maximilian Reichsgraf Berghe von Trips is possibly the personification of ‘racing royalty’ and born into German nobility on May 4 1928.

While his family wanted young Wolfgang to develop a love and knowledge for agriculture so he could manage the family farming business around its Burg Hemmersbach castle in the Rhineland, in his youth, von Trips would frequently visit the nearby Nurburgring, where he developed an underlying appreciation for motorsports.

His affliction was halted by the outbreak of the Second World War, but once the conflict was over, von Trips returned armed with a driving license, plenty of land and the family motorcycle. His two-wheeled thrills tempted Wolfgang to pursue something even more exciting and without any prior experience, von Trips went car racing in a Volkswagen Beetle.

His early exploits are not adequately recorded, but in 1954 he bought Porsche 356 and entered the Mille Miglia. In spite of his relative youth and inexperience, he returned from his thousand-mile thrash from Brescia to Rome and back second in class and 33rd overall.

Luckily for Taffy, as his close friends called him, legendary Mercedes race team manager Alfred Neubauer noticed von Trips and offered the young German a seat in one of his silver arrows sports cars. Von Trips thrived on the opportunity, but progress was be put on hold by another calamity.  

This time it was the 1955 Le Mans disaster where von Trips’ Mercedes teammate Pieirre Leveigh and 82 spectators were killed when his magnesium bodied SLR exploded into the crowd after a collision. Mercedes pulled out of motorsports entirely but rather than calling it quits, Wolfang reunited with Porsche  

His car won its class en route to fourth place overall  in the 1956 Le Mans 24-hour, where in a season that also yielded a couple of class wins at Sebring, von Trips attracted none other than Enzo Ferrari’s attention. A call followed soon enquiring as to the availability of the young count’s driving services…

Ferrari’s quest proved fruitful to von Trips, who went on to spend the majority of his racing career driving Enzo’s cars. The plan was for Wolfgang to make his Formula 1 debut at the 1956 Italian Grand Prix with Ferrari, but yet again, Taffy’s career was put on hold.  

His Lancia-Ferrari D50 suffered a steering failure, causing the car to spear into the Monza trees in an accident in which his injuries were fortunately limited to a broken arm. They were still sufficient to delay von Trips’ F1 debut into 1957.

Wolfgang was back in action for the season opener in Argentina – a 100-lap race around the 4km Buenos Aires circuit where von Trips had the dubious honour of filling the reigning then four-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio’s seat after the great Argentinian had jumped ship to Maserati on his mission to a fifth world title.  

Fangio’s move proved the right call as it transpired that the top four positions were filled by Maserati’s 250Fs, headed by the great home hero. In an attempt to curb Maserati’s domination, the top two Ferrari cars were shared between five drivers – starting eleventh, the number 18 Ferrari shared by von Trips, Cesare Perdisa and Peter Collins rose to sixth place finish to miss the points by a position.  

Taffy was back in action at round 2 in Monaco, but retired ten laps from home after engine failure before missing the next five races before returning for the season finale at Monza a year on from his accident. This time however, von Trips enjoyed a little better Italian luck as he scored his first points and podium with third aboard Ferrari’s 801 to wrap up 14th in the ’57 title race with four points to his name.  

1958 started quietly with von Trips’ season commencing at round two at Monaco but marred by a late engine failure. Taffy was only back in a Ferrari again at round six at Reims – a gruelling old school street circuit through the French countryside and villages. Mike Hawthorn won with von Trips third place in a race marred by the death of their Ferrari teammate Luigi Musso.  

Wolfgang followed that result up with a fourth and a fifth at rounds eight and nine in the respective German and Portuguese Grands Prix to see him amass nine points to end up 12th overall in his part season.

1959 proved a quiet year for von Trips, but 1960 saw the nobleman compete in his first full season in Formula 1, which although it did not deliver a rostrum for Wolfgang, his results through the year proved far more consistent with five points-paying finishes delivering ten points over the ten rounds to see Taffy to seventh in the ’60 championship.  

Many tipped Wolfgang von Trips as a serious title contender in 1961 armed with the all-new rear-mid engined 1.5-litre ‘shark nose’ Ferrari 156 and the ‘horse behind the cart’ for the first time.  

The predictions appeared on point from the get-go when the season started late at Monaco, a race for once free of the reliability niggles that troubled him in the principality over the years. This time however, von Trips crashed the 156 with two laps of the chaotic race left to run, but he had done enough to grab fourth place.  

Race two took the pack from Monte-Carlo to the Dutch beaches at Zandvoort where von Trips qualified second with an identical time to pole man, title-rival and teammate Phil Hill. Von Trips passed Hill on the first tour and led every lap of the race. The two had a clear advantage along Zandvoort’s straights, allowing them to leave the pursuing Jim Clark’s Lotus in their wake as the Ferrari pair to scrapped all the way to the line where they were still under a second apart when the chequered flag flew.

Then in his fifth year in the sport and with his first win under his belt, Wolfgang was demonstrating his potential as a naturally fast racer. The momentum carried on into Belgium, with Ferrari again dominating in a 1-2-3-4 finish around the 14.1km circuit with von Trips finishing third over the thirty lap endeavour just 0.7 seconds behind Phil Hill. His run was paused by a retirement at Reims but it very much be resumed at the British Grand Prix.

Once the torrential rain eventually dried up at Aintree, Ferrari had locked the podium as von Trips stood on the top step following a dominant drive to a 45 second win over Hill. Taffy’s fourth podium of the season German Grand Prix following another wet race on the daunting Nurburgring Nordschleife, where von Trips ended second behind Stirling Moss following another race-long battle with teammate Hill.  

The next round was at Monza, which returned to a road and oval combination format on 10 September 1961 with four drivers were mathematically in with a shout for the title, but the real fight was between Ferrari teammates Phil Hill and Wolfgang von Trips. Von Trips qualified on pole position in front of the adoring Tifosi, but he and Jim Clark collided on the run down to the Parabolica.  

Von Trips’ Ferrari 156 speared across the track and up a grass embankment where several spectators were watching the race. Von Trips was killed as he was thrown from the airborne car, but the Ferrari somersaulted into the crowd to also take the lives of fifteen spectators.  

Unaware of the tragedy, Phil Hill raced on to win the race and secure the driver’s championship, but Ferrari pulled out of the final round US Grand Prix Watkins Glen out of respect if its fallen driver.  

Wolfgang von Trips personified racing royalty. Born to a privileged background, Taffy lived his dream as he forged a career out of his passion. In the early days, he raced under the pseudonym Alex Linther to try not draw attention to his lineage – a move not uncommon, as you will read throughout our Racing Royalty series. Rarely however, has there ever been a royal driver so naturally talented as was Taffy von Trips.  

Until his tragic accident, there was every possibility he would be crowned champion. Yet fate would not have it and instead Wolfgang von Trips’ tragic loss inspired technological and regulatory change to promote driver safety that has since reduced the tragedy of Formula 1 to the very bare minimum.   (Photo: F1 Archives)

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Wolfgang von Trips

Wolfgang von Trips was the only child of a noble German family. His relatives obstructed his passion for racing cars, to the extent that he started racing under a false name, Axel Linther, as his nickname, “Taffy”, was too well-known. He achieved relevant results straight away, in countless races and across different categories, driving for Porsche and Mercedes. In 1956, driving a Porsche, he won in the sport category: at Sebring, Le Mans and Avus. Then, he moved on to Ferrari, which he continued racing within F1 too.

On 22nd May 1961, at the Zandvoort racetrack, he won with a Ferrari, in front of his teammate, Phill Hill . At Monza’s G.P., he started off in Pole Position, Ricardo Rodríguez by his side. After the Ascari bend, there’s the straight and then the drivers had to get ready for the parabolic curve. That is where the tragedy started: Clark and Trips’ cars touched. The Lotus pirouetted and the driver came out unharmed. The Ferrari took off towards the containment nets, numerous spectators were harmed and the driver was left on the ground unconscious. Von Trips had great driving skills, excellent technical culture and a passion for mechanics. He was a fighter, generous and fiery, a Gentleman behind the wheel and in life.

Sunak suffers disastrous night - the big moments

On this day: german f1 driver wolfgang von trips dies in crash and kills 15 spectators at italian grand prix, “at one point von trips shifted sideways so that my front wheels collided with his back wheels. it was the fatal moment".

September 10: Formula One driver Wolfgang von Trips died in a horrific crash that killed 15 spectators at the Italian Grand Prix on this day in 1961. The German racer, who was on course to win that year’s championship, clipped Briton Jim Clark’s Lotus, which catapulted his Ferrari into the crowd. Von Trips, 33, the wealthy playboy son of a noble Rhineland family, was thrown from the airborne car and died after hitting the ground at the notorious Monza circuit.

[ On This Day: Racing driver Bill Vukovich dies in Indianapolis fireball crash ]

In the aftermath, Clark, who would also later die racing in 1968, revealed how the accident happened.

“Von Trips and I were racing along the straightaway and were nearing one of the banked curves, the one on the southern end,” he said. “We were about 100 metres from the beginning of the curve. “Von Trips was running close to the inside of the track. I was closely following him, keeping near the outside. “At one point Von Trips shifted sideways so that my front wheels collided with his back wheels. It was the fatal moment.

[ On This Day: Farnborough Air Show tragedy kills 29 ]

“Von Trips's car spun twice and went into the guardrail along the inside of the track. Then it bounced back, struck my own car and bounced down into the crowd.” Von Trips had been leading the 1961 Formula One World Drivers Championship and needed only third place in Italy – the penultimate Grand Prix – to win the competition. A British Pathé newsreel filmed Phil Hill, who became the only American to clinch the title after winning the race, receiving his trophy not knowing about his rival’s fate.

But, in an era when drivers were expected to dice with death while earning in their careers what Lewis Hamilton makes in a race, fatal crashes were fairly typical. In the 1960s race organizer were not that interested in safety and that decade alone saw 14 F1 drivers die. That began to change with the death of Clark, a highly charismatic star who was probably the best-loved racer of that era. The death toll slowly began to fall, with 12 drivers dying in the 1970s and four in the 1980s. No racer has died in a grand prix since Brazilian world champion Ayrton Senna lost his life after a crash at San Marino in 1994.

[ On This Day: Le Mans crash kills 83 fans ]

Altogether, 49 F1 drivers have lost their lives in racecars. Von Trips, who had twice been injured after crashing at previous Italian Grand Prix events, helped fellow German Michael Schumacher become an F1 legend. A go-kart track he opened at Kerpen, near Cologne, was later leased by Rolf Schumacher, who taught his oldest boy and other son Ralf how to race there. In 1992, Michael Schumacher, who also raced for Ferrari, became the first German to win a full-length grand prix since Von Trips’s 1961 victory in Britain. He went on to win a record seven championships and is widely regarded as the best ever F1 driver.

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Irkutsk to Krasnoyarsk: The road between two of Siberia’s most thriving cities

The Paris of Siberia

Originally established as a trading center, Irkutsk was founded over 350 years ago. Today, the wealth that once poured into the city is evident in the many historic wooden houses featuring elaborate woodwork and window trim. Once referred to as the “Paris of Siberia,” Irkutsk has traditionally served as Siberia’s cultural, economic and intellectual capital.

Don’t leave the city before visiting the Znamensky Monastery or the Bogoyavlensky Cathedral , which were both originally destroyed by fires during Irkutsk’s early days. The monastery, completed in 1772, features a small cemetery where notable locals are buried. The cathedral features a jumble of onion domes and towers that have long made it one of Siberia’s most iconic buildings.

The Hotel Victoria is a good option with rooms starting at $100 a night including breakfast and parking.

After exploring the southern coast of Lake Baikal on your drive along the Trans-Siberian Highway, you can visit the lake’s western coast as a day trip from Irkutsk.

Hop on a ferry run by the Eastern-Siberian Inland Navigation Company, also known by its Cyrillic acronym, VSRP . The ferry company offers package tours and ferry service to numerous towns on Lake Baikal.

If you just want to get out on the water for a few hours, VSRP runs a historic tour along the Angara River (about $10, 1 hour) that includes an audio guide. You can also book a tour to beautiful Peschanaya Bay (about $50, 10 hours, Fridays and Sundays only), or the quaint lakeside village of Bolshie Koty (about $26, 4-10 hours depending on the boat).

You can also buy a ferry ticket at VSRP to many Baikal towns. Bolshie Koty (about $13, 1.5 hours from Irkutsk) is one of the most tranquil locations on the lake. Ferries run to the village three times a day from Irkutsk except for Mondays and select weekdays during the summer. Check the ferry schedule before planning your trip.

To get back on the road from Hotel Victoria, drive south on ul. Karla Marksa and take a right on ul. Lenina. Turn left on ul. Chkalova and bear right toward the Angarsky Bridge. On the other side of the bridge, get on the M-55 Federal Highway.

Outside Irkutsk the route number on the Trans-Siberian Highway changes to M-53, which will take you to the city of Krasnoyarsk (14 hours, 1,000 kilometers). The long drive to Krasnoyarsk consists of tall hills and farmland. Like the drive through the Russian Far East, you can park your car by the road and camp, although it’s best to ask for permission if you see a house nearby.

Siberia is a land of rivers, and the city of Bratsk (9 hours, 600 kilometers north of Irkutsk) is home to the Bratsk Dam , once the world’s largest hydroelectric power station.

The Bratsk Dam can be visited independently, but you’ll see far more with a tour. Contact Taiga Tours in Bratsk to arrange a visit to the Bratsk Dam.

During summer different varieties of wildflowers grow on the M-53. The flowers overtake entire fields that appear in the distance like purple or yellow lakes. Locals often pull over to pick wild berries and mushrooms, or appear in the meadows leading flocks of sheep to graze in the countryside. This is a great area to witness the pastoral life described in classic Russian novels; you’ll find that rural traditions are alive and well in the villages on the road to Krasnoyarsk.

Upon reaching Krasnoyarsk, you can drive south away from the Trans-Siberian Highway into the Tuva Republic, home to the Tuva people , practicing Buddhists who trace their ethnic and cultural roots to the Turkic and Mongolian peoples. Most famous for their throat singers , Tuva can be a fascinating, albeit long, side trip that is recommended if you have time.

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